


In the morning it comes, heaven sent a hurricane

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: Abuse, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:28:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Karen is an abusive relationship, and Matt tries to help her but she insists that everything is fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the morning it comes, heaven sent a hurricane

Karen’s got a new boyfriend in Los Angeles, and she’s incredibly excited. Matt’s not quite as thrilled, because he has unresolved  _feelings_ for Karen, but he’s supportive, because she’s going to be an awesome movie star and she’s probably going to have some awesome American boyfriend to go along with it.

Matt hears about him first in November, and apparently things are serious enough that she spends Christmas with him in Los Angeles. 

A sudden drop in contact roughly coincides with her beginning to date the guy, whose name Matt is pretty sure is Mark. Whatever. He sort of cuts off from his friends when he gets a new girlfriend, so it’s entirely valid for her to do so as well. 

* * *

By about February, though, her silence becomes uncharacteristic. Matt wonders if it’s just him, but then he talks to Arthur and realises that he’s not heard from Karen in ages either. 

It is at this point that he thinks that something might be up. 

He stays up super late one night and calls her on Skype. She does pick up, though she looks a little surprised. Or scared. He can’t quite decide  which, and that thought kind of freaks him out. 

“Hey Kaz! How are you doing?” 

She smiles, but it’s forced, that he can tell. “Oh, great. Yeah, weather’s lovely.” 

“Good!” He looks outside. Seriously? They haven’t talked in months and the only thing that she can think to talk about is the weather? “Yup, pouring in Cardiff again. You’ve been ignoring us, Kazza!” 

“Oh.” She giggles a bit nervously, and Matt thinks,  _well shit, this is weird._ “Things have been… busy.” 

Matt hears the door open in the background, and Karen’s head whips over her shoulder. There’s talking that he couldn’t really make out, and then he hears Mark and Karen start to fight. 

“What did I say about talking to people back at home, Karen?” Mark says, and storms up to the computer and slams down the lid of Karen’s laptop, ending the call. 

 _Yeah,_ Matt thinks,  _things are not right over there._

He e-mails Karen after a few minutes. 

_Kaz,_

_If everything’s not okay for you, you can let me know, okay?_

He has a reply when he wakes up the next morning. 

_Oh, we just had a little tiff, that’s all. Everything’s fine, Matt._

* * *

That conversation that he had with Karen stick with him for weeks, and he goes over every little detail and hashes it out in great detail with Jenna and Alex. They both come to the same conclusion that he had - that something is seriously wrong in that relationship. 

“Like, it’s not okay for him to be limiting contact with her friends back home,” Alex says over wine in her trailer one night after shooting. “I mean, it’s not like Karen’s not a social butterfly or anything, but she’s probably missing you and everyone else. I wonder if he’s cutting her off from her family too?” 

“I don’t know,” Matt says, “I can’t seem to get in touch with her.”

“I’d keep trying, if I were you.”

* * *

So he does, and one day he  _finally_ manages to catch her online, and she actually responds to the video call. 

“Is he home?” Matt asks as soon as she picks up.

“Nope.”

“And is he coming home soon?”

Karen shakes her head. “What’s up, Matt?”

“I’m worried about you, Kaz.”

She looks affronted. “Why would you be worried about me, Matt?”

“Because things aren’t right with that guy.”

“Why would you think that? I told you Matt, everything’s fine.”

“Well,” he says, “I think that he’s cutting you off from your people over here. I figured that maybe there was some other reason why you weren’t calling me, but then it turns out that you haven’t been in touch with anyone, Kaz. Not Arthur, not Alex, and apparently you were even in semi-regular contact with Steven and then suddenly, everything’s dropped.” He squints, because the quality of the Skype call is bad and he can’t really tell, but there looks like there’s something around her eye. “And what’s up with your face, Kaz?”

She doesn’t answer. 

“Karen, please, just tell me what’s up.” 

“I walked in to a pole because I was on my phone while walking.” She looks away from the camera.

Bullshit. She’s still got that frightened, flighty look in her eyes that was there the last time they talked. 

“Did he give that to you?” 

“ _No,_ Matt.” There’s a kind of tremor in her voice that Matt’s pretty sure isn’t Skype’s fault, and the thing is too, he can tell when she’s lying. 

“I don’t believe you, Karen.” 

Now she gets defensive. “Is this you just trying to pull me back to the UK for your own reasons?” 

“No, Karen -“ 

“Because if you’ve got unresolved feelings and whatever, than just be honest with me about them, but don’t make those kinds of accusations about Mark.” 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Matt says. “This isn’t coming from an unresolved feelings place, Karen. This is coming from an ‘I’m worried because you aren’t being you’ place. You could probably have this same conversation with Arthur or Alex, or, and I’m just guessing here, because I don’t know how to get in touch with your people up in Inverness, probably your parents or anyone in your family. Karen, if he’s not letting you contact the people you know and love, then there’s something wrong and you know it.” 

“Go to hell, Matt,”she says. 

He kind of shrugs. “Okay, but you’re not denying it.” 

“Everything’s okay, and until you can accept that, I strongly encourage you not to call me again.” She disconnects the call. 

* * *

He sits with the British Airways reservation page open for ages, with a one-way flight to Los Angeles a click away from being booked. Matt knows that if he doesn’t go, something bad could happen. 

But then maybe everything’s fine, and he could just be overreacting. 

He paces for hours and hours in his flat, trying to decide on a course of action, and then he ends up just sending her an e-mail instead. 

_Hey Kazza,_

_I’m really sorry about the conversation we had earlier, and I guess that you probably are okay and I’m just being too much of a worrywart. But something stinks to high heaven about his trying to limit your contact with your friends and family over here, because we’re your people too, and just because you’re going to be a big movie star over there doesn’t mean he can cut you off._

_Or it’s your choice, and that’s fine, but you must have been going at a pretty good clip to give yourself a black eye from walking in to a pole._

_Listen, if you ever decide to up and leave, you can come stay with me until you get set back up again. Ultimately though, it’s your choice, and if you don’t want to contact me again, I would hope that you’re doing it out of your own choosing and not because he’s telling you to._

_All the best,_

_Matt_

* * *

He doesn’t hear from her for exactly eight weeks (not that he’s been counting). One weekend when he’s back in London, though, he gets a text message from her.

_@ heathrow come pick me up?_

Matt literally drops the plate of biscuits he’s holding in his haste to get his car keys. 

She’s waiting in the arrivals area when he comes to pick her up, and they don’t say anything when he walks up to her. He grabs one of her massive suitcases and they make their way back to his car. 

The drive back in to London is silent, too. 

He gets her tea when they arrive back at his flat. 

“Do you want to book a hotel or something?” He says as she plunks herself down in his armchair. 

She shakes her head. 

“You were right, Matt,” she says after a long pause, staring at her feet. 

“Are you going back?” 

“I don’t think so.”

He nods. “It’s good to have you back, Kazza.” 


End file.
